Kaitlyn Hunt Accepts New Plea Deal

Kaitlyn Hunt—the 19-year-old Florida woman jailed for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl—has accepted a new plea deal.

As we previously reported back in August, Florida prosecutors withdrew Hunt's previous plea deal after allegations that the older woman had sent thousands of messages, including naked pictures, to the 14-year-old.

Prosecutor Brian Workman had the following to say about Hunt's new plea deal (via CNN.com):

Hunt will plead no contest to five charges, including two counts of misdemeanor battery, misdemeanor contributing to the dependency of a child and two counts of felony interference with child custody.

Hunt would be sentenced to four months in jail, to be followed by two years of house arrest with electronic monitoring, and nine months of monitored probation after that.

If she has no violations, she will not be a convicted felon under Florida law, and she will have the possibility of sealing her file and having the case expunged after 10 years.

Complete oversimplifcation of the situation. They were BOTH minors when the relationship started; a person's emotional attachments do not just disappear when when one party in a couple reaches majority. The minor girl in question did not pursue this on her own, she did not initiate the criminal prosecution; that was her parents' doing. And if they had been a male-female couple, Romeo & Juliet exceptions might have applied (don't know if they do in their home state or not; if not, they should). But the fact remains that she has been foolish in the extreme since the legal battles began, & this is about as good as she is going to get.

No, it's not "fair;" nothing about this case is "fair." Unfortunately, however, she has not behaved in a responsible manner which would make a more reasonable plea bargain possible. On the other hand, with this she is spared a lifetime of being on the sex offenders registry, which to me would be the most damaging aspect of it all, were she to go to trial and put her case in the hands of a jury which, given that THIS CASE IS IN FLORIDA, PEOPLE - REMEMBER WHAT JUSTICE LOOKS LIKE IN FLORIDA? - so it's probably the best that she can hope for in the greater scheme of things. I just hope that jail is not too damaging an experience for her.